There was one particular Friday I remember when our newly hired yaya of two days suddenly decided to quit. Her husband showed up to inform us that her mother didn't want her to be a nanny. So she packed up her stuff and left before noon. She didn't even give us time to find a replacement, let alone wait until the next day. We decided to go to Sta. Ana, Manila so we could leave Dan with Lyn's relatives and go all the way back to Taytay to tutor the kids. The problem was that the car was color-coded for the day and there was no way we could make it back to to beat the 3PM deadline. Consequently, we cancelled all our classes for that day and headed to MegaMall to wait for the to be lifted at 7PM.

Lyn, Dan and I roamed the mall, virtually flat broke, with barely enough to feed ourselves (although we did bring milk for Dan). We passed most of the time at the video arcade. We didn't actually play any games - we just sat by the bench and carried Dan around to distract him when he would get restless.

I don't recall any other time when I felt more pitiful or pathetic. The song "Esem" by Yano comes to mind. Maybe it's my pride talking, but I don't ever want to feel like that ever again. Kawawang-kawawa kami nung araw na yun. All because of that bitch. She has no idea what inconvenience she caused us that day.

When I think about how upset I was that day, I decided that I would use my anger to fuel my desire to excel. I'm not going to let myself or them fall into that kind of situation again. Kainis talaga! Tangina.

AS RANDOM AS IT GETSSo I finally caved in and watched the not-so-original copy of Batman Begins at home. I tried holding off seeing it until I could get my hands on a clear copy, but the temptation had proven to be too much. The reason is that I don't want to rob myself of experiencing the film the way it was meant to be - namely with decent picture and audible dialogue. Well, that policy only applies to movies I really want to watch.

Dan's awake. I'll be back.

As I was saying, even though the copy I watched was crap, I enjoyed the film. It's disappointing not to have watched it on the big screen. I'll just have to imagine what is must have been like and assume it was thoroughly enjoyable. Oh well, I'll get to see it original video someday.

All I could I give was a polite "no", or something like "ay wag na lang muna". What I really wanted to say was "sorry kid, I don't want to give your uncle an excuse to be his psycho self again. He'll just throw another bitch fit and beat someone up". I'm talking about our next door neighbors, my mom-in-law's siblings (and their kids). There's one particular brother mom-in-law has that's actually a nice guy, but has violent tendencies. When we didn't have anyone to leave Dan with in the past, sometimes we would ask them if they could take care of him while we were at work. There were also times when when we'd leave Dan and his new yaya at their place because we didn't trust her alone with our kid. Apparently, the said psycho uncle got pissed off whenever we would do so. So says his mom (mom-in-law's mother): "nagagalit siya pag iniiwan dito si Dan kasama ng yaya niya. Kung sinu-sino daw yung pinapapasok dito". As if he bought and owned the house. Nakikitira lang sila. Asshole.

So you want to be a phone monkey eh? Well let me tell you right now sonny, it ain't no walk in the park (or the graveyard in this case). With your overpriced taste, you'll come to find that your paycheck won't be enough, nor justify the work you're going to do. I'm talking about my bro-in-law, whom I shall refer to as Whiny Boy.

WB is actually nice to me, but he's a spoiled brat. He's too busy with Ragnarok, hanging, and jamming with his band to be bothered with school. He's planning to file a LOA so he can apply for a call center job. When I asked him what for, he said "sawa na ako sa kakahingi". Tangina mo pare. Sabihin mo lang masyado ka lang magastos. Your parents are breaking their back to make a living...just so they can send your lazy ass to school, you inconsiderate little shit. Selfish little prick.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shampoo commercials suck. Next to the devil, they must be the greatest perpetrator of lies. Honestly, do you really expect me to believe that using your overhyped product will make anyone's hair look as artificially straight as the model's??

All my precious comments gone :( all swallowed up by the beast known as the malfunction of enetation.co.uk. So here I am to start anew. Feel free to post about the previous posts, etc.

Waiting for Lyn to get out of UE. We barely made it on time by the skin of our teeth - a few minutes shy of 6:30 AM. Hopefully, they'll be letting them out for lunch, which is an hour from now. Aggh, they don't allow mobile phones in the testing area (understandably) so I'm gonna have to wait for Lyn by 12 noon even if I'm not sure if she's getting out by then. I should have looked at it before she went in this morning. In the meantime, I'm just lazing about in a suprisingly good net cafe at Recto. The connection is fast enough to rival that of the office of my last job. I just tried downloading some files, it's pretty damn fast I say. It's not that seedy either. Well-lit, good PCs and friendly staff. However, I did see a baby roach crawl across the keyboard to my right. But at 15 bucks an hour, it's a very good deal. They even charge by the minute.

Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts - where hast thou gone? They're always swarming and buzzing in my head when I'm cut off from online access, and then flutter away when I have decent time to blog. I'm still waiting for a call from my former manager so they can set up an interview. I had hesitated to post about it here out of fear of jinxing the whole thing, but I can't keep my anxiety to myself any longer. If I do get the job, it means more income for us, and less sleep for me. But I honestly don't mind.

Uh-oh, suddenly my tummy doesn't feel so good. I wonder if they have a bathroom here?

Anyway, business is still fledgling, but Lyn and I are trying to our best to keep it up and running. Oh, and Master Nemo has joined our staff as a part-time tutor :) Teaching grade school kids is rewarding and frustrating at the same time. Well, rewarding for teaching smart and cooperative students and frustrating on account of teaching slow and stubborn ones.

Too bad I didn't bring my flash drive with me. I'm thinking they could save mp3s from here since Windows XP doesn't give you any hassle about using portable USB storage devices [like 98 does (the OS that the net cafe at our village has)].

Let's hit the publish button and see if that'll do it for now. If nothing follows below, I guess that'll be it for now.

The working day hasn't started for me yet, but I'm already a bit drained. Just swept and mopped the office. Afterwards, I put together the dialogue we're going to use for tomorrow's lesson...as well as the overdue quiz. All in all, I started 10:45 AM and finished 12:35 PM.

Arrgh, so here I am at a net cafe trying to hear myself think while the elementary kids nearby are playing some network game. Not the usual smelly ragnarok scum, but loudmouthed all the same. Well that's the price for trying to blog in a net cafe.

Anyway, we're still trying to gain momentum as far as the business is concerned. I'm also looking to get another job to supplement our income. Hope the interview is scheduled soon. I had so many thoughts pouring in last night, but now they're all gone. Oh well, I have to go home for lunch so I can be back at the office by 1:45 PM. Time is always against us, as Morpheus said.